Zoey Pierson
Zoey Pierson is George Van Smoot's ex-wife and Ted Mosby's ex-girlfriend. Ted's Enemy Zoey is an active protester against the issues she believes are important. She had previously chained herself to a 100-year-old redwood, stolen a police horse at an anti-war rally, set a car on fire after the Guns 'n Roses 2009 concert, and stolen a whole van of white rabbits from a beauty company. However, she became a nuisance to Ted as an activist against the destruction of The Arcadian, an old hotel in NYC which would be torn down to be replaced by the new Goliath National Bank office headquarters of Ted's design. Ted expresses interest in her at first and finds himself in a dilemma between work and love, which is increased tenfold when Barney has a poster of Ted hanging on the façade of the Arcadian. This turns Zoey against Ted, and she puts him in her crosshairs. He tries to make ends meet by integrating the old façade in the new GNB headquarters, but when he shows her the design, he finds out that she is married. Realizing that he was doing the huge efforts for Zoey and not the Arcadian, he scraps his new design and reverts to the old ones, bringing his relationship with Zoey to a hate-basis again. ( ) To frustrate Ted further, Zoey enrolls in Ted's architecture class and lures all his students to protest in favor of the preservation of Arcadian, turning them against him. Ted loses control of his students to the degree that they don't even show up for class one day, but he regains control when he threatens to give an F to all who don't show up in class next day. ( ) Shortly after, at the autumn spectacular at the NYC Museum of National History, Ted runs into Zoey again, and her husband, George Van Smoot, also known as The Captain. Unlike Zoey, the Captain likes Ted and invites him on his boat. She manages to manipulate him into talking against how GNB are scrapping the Arcadian, obtaining a copy of Ted's words on tape. But The Captain finds out everything and offers Ted to find the tape and erase it, knowing how Zoey's temper tantrums can get in the way of people to try and do their job. Ted refuses to, and holds a conversation with the Captain, unaware that they were standing in the exact place where Zoey can overhear them from the other side of the hall. She finds Ted and explains how she erased the tape (it is later revealed in to be Zoey's lie), but will still be keeping him in her crosshairs starting from Monday. The two end up dancing. ( ) Ted's Friend On the night before Thanksgiving, the gang (minus Ted) spot her in MacLaren's Pub, and recognize her as Ted's enemy. However, she spends time with them, and by the end of the night they all grow to like her. She invites them all to spend Thanksgiving with her, and while the rest of the gang enjoy her company, she and Ted continue to argue and insult one another. Eventually, she kicks them all out of her apartment once Ted compares her to Cinderella's evil step-mother. However, when Ted realizes that she is an actual step-mother, and that her step-daughter hates her, Ted comes back and apologizes about his earlier remark. The two finally become friends, and they all share Thanksgiving together. ( ) Due to their recent friendship and similar interests, she and Ted start spending a lot more time together. When they spend time alone at an art gallery, her husband calls. Zoey lies and tells him she's out with friends, instead of with Ted. When Ted asks her about it, she explains that her husband tends to get jealous when he's away. To try and make things better, Ted decides to spend time with Zoey and The Captain together on their boat, but at the last minute Zoey gets sick and cancels. Although it's just the two of them, Ted and The Captain become good friends. Zoey later admits that she faked being sick, in the hopes that Ted and The Captain would become friends. Ted mentions his concern that the two of them spending time together doesn't cross any lines, and that if either of them develops feelings for the other, they should stop hanging out. Zoey agrees, and they both deny that they have feelings for one another. However, it's hinted that this will not always be the case, as the Mermaid Clock begins to count down (the hypothetical countdown to the moment when you realize you want to sleep with someone) ( ). Ted's Girlfriend Soon after Marshall's father dies, Ted begins to realize his feelings for Zoey. He tells her they cannot be friends anymore, so not to complicate her relationship with the captain. She asks hims why they can't be friends, and he replies that Lily hated her. Lily told Zoey that Robin hated her, and Robin said that Marshall hated Zoey. Honey calls Marshall to get in contact with Barney, and is tricked into revealing Zoey's secret: Zoey and George were getting a divorce and Zoey was in love with Ted. Marshall calls both Ted and Zoey, telling both of them how they felt about each other, and they get together ( ). Ted had always remained cautious around Zoey because she was married. After learning about the divorce and her mutual feelings for him, it seemed safe to make a move. He told people the story about how she had fought with The Captain and then came to Ted after leaving him. However, he learned from The Captain (who didn't yet know it was Ted who Zoey was now seeing) that she had in fact left him for another man. After confronting Zoey, he learned this was true. Despite his attempts to be respectful and keep his distance, he was still the "bad guy" ( ). Zoey tries to convince Ted they should get back together. The two arrange a meeting but in the last moment Ted is being convinced by Robin and Barney not to make the same mistake and date Zoey again.( ) Notes and Trivia *Zoey seems to always to carry a recorder to either remind herself of certain things or to record a conversation and use it against people. *During a flash-forward to the year 2021 in , Ted encounters Wendy the Waitress while stuck in an airport in Hong Kong. In this conversation, Wendy inquires if Ted is still in a relationship with Zoey to which he replies, "No! Wow, that did not end well. But it's all for the best, because now I'm married to this amazing girl and we have two kids". This revelation disproves the theory that Zoey is the mother. Family Episode Appearances # # # # # # # # # # # # Category:Characters Category:recurring characters